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Sean Payton needs Saints fans to help him in his gameplan against the Rams

Charles Curtis, For The Win
Published 9:08 a.m. CT Jan. 18, 2019

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Kevin Foote names his top five Saints-Rams matchups of all time. Will this weekend's NFC championship game knock one of these out?
Lafayette Daily Advertiser

Sean Payton has a brilliant idea on how to stop the vaunted Los Angeles Rams offense … and it involves manipulating the way New Orleans Saints fans cheer at the Superdome.

Here’s what he said on Thursday:

“I think what’s important for our fan base is understanding when that crowd noise needs to begin differently this week than normal weeks. “That crowd noise needs to begin prior to 15 seconds left (on the play clock) … just as that last play finished. You get 65-70 snaps of that crowd noise earlier than normal and louder than normal, it’s difficult.”

Why is that so brilliant? Let’s go all the way back to 2017. NFL experts — including our Steven Ruiz — began noticing Jared Goff and the Rams’ offense would get to the line super-fast. More from Ruiz:

McVay gets the Rams lined up quickly, leaving him enough time to assess the defense and call an audible (if necessary) before the play clock hits the 15-second mark. That’s when the headset communication between the coach and quarterback cuts off.

This is the SoundFX clip I mentioned earlier. Listen out for McVay calling the audibles in the headset before Goff calls them https://t.co/rvT76HnYNw

How come no one with home games against the Rams has thought of this before? If your home crowd — particularly in a dome — gets its loudest precisely the moment Goff needs to hear McVay the most, it could be trouble.

McVay, for what it’s worth, refuted that it was all his pre-snap audible calling that was responsible for Goff’s development and success. Via Rams Wire in 2017:

“To say that you’re in his ear — because I’ve seen some of the things out there — I think it’s a discredit to what Jared has done,” McVay said. “And really, when you just look at it with the experiences that I’ve had in Washington and here, it’s totally at the quarterback’s discretion whether they want to have you be able to talk to them, give them any sort of reminders or if they say, ‘Just give me the play and then let me go ahead and just play the position.’”

Yes, Goff deserves some credit. But if he leans on McVay to change up his play calls a lot of the time, Payton may have found a way to combat the strategy.

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